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Release notes

These docs match the version of RFM that's currently on the Workshop.

2.1.0

A big one. Most of it came out of building a tandem rotor conversion, so modders get a lot of new framework. Players get the engine keybinds back, a flight assist you can actually see, weight that follows people around the aircraft, a better Mi-8 rotor and a handful of fixes.

For players

New

  • Engine keybinds work. Hold R (gamepad: hold Y) starts the engine and Ctrl+R stops it, same as vanilla helicopters. The start and stop hints in the bottom left now follow the real engine, they used to stay on "Start engine" with it running. Holding R again while it runs doesn't shut it down anymore, use Ctrl+R or the cockpit switch.
  • You can see what the flight assist is doing. The vanilla autohover icon and the autohover hints work on RFM aircraft. The RFM HUD has a new ASSIST line under the autopilot line: your control device, then AUTOHOVER, DRIFT HOLD (settling a slow drift with the stick let go), ALT and HDG.
  • New setting: Hover drift damping (Settings > RFM). Gamepad, and joystick/HOTAS with the flight assist on. It's how hard the assist leans against drift when you let go of the stick at low speed. At 0 it only holds the attitude and lets you drift.
  • People standing on board get weighed where they stand. Troops walking in a cabin, someone on the ramp, the roof or a skid all count, at their actual position. Walk to the back of the aircraft and the CG moves back with you. Getting out or falling off takes the weight off within a second.
  • Drive-by riders count. SHS Drive By takes passengers out of their seats to shoot. They used to weigh nothing the moment they did that. Now they're weighed at their actual position, no dependency needed.
  • Moving around doesn't double count anyone. Seat to seat, seat to a drive-by seat, or seat to standing, you're moved over in the same check. Slow drive-by seat switches keep your weight while they run.
  • Mi-8 rotor. The mast doesn't lean with the disc anymore. Each blade flaps on its own hinge like the real thing, so you see the blades cone up and the disc tilt while the mast stays put.

Changed

  • Articulated rotors pass loads to the airframe like a real hinged rotor. The part of each blade's load that goes into flapping and leading or lagging the blade stays in the blade instead of shaking the airframe. The averages don't change. The Mi-8 is the one you'll notice it on.
  • The settings tab says which devices each input setting is for.
  • Fuel tanks get rechecked every few seconds, so fuel mods that add or swap tanks after the aircraft spawns work.

Fixed

  • The rotor's swirl could blow up at high speed, running the inner part of the blades backwards and throwing off the power numbers in fast forward flight. It's fixed for every aircraft, hover is unchanged.
  • Someone standing inside the aircraft in flight could make it think it was on the ground.
  • The ground, rotor and tyre checks could read your own riders, your own stores or people standing underneath as ground. Skids and wheels don't rest on people anymore either, the game's own collision handles that.
  • The Mi-8's blade strike check now uses the real coning of its blades.
  • Less log spam from the armed UH-1 and Mi-8 variants.

For modders

Flight-control system

  • A generic stability and autopilot framework, off unless you give an aircraft an Fcs Profile. Pilot, trim actuators, SAS channels, mixer, scheduled crossfeeds and servos, in that order. Modes are one generic block (signal, reference, PI(D), output) covering attitude, heading, speed, altitude, velocity, position and navigation holds, with capture, standby, dropout, pilot override, beep and outer loops. Sources (sensors, buses, hydraulics) gate what can run. Includes an in-game panel (Draw Fcs Panel), a profile checker ([RFM-FCS-CHECK]) and a bench test. Signals include engine torque percent for a torque limiter and lateral acceleration. See Flight-control system.
  • Airframe surfaces can be driven by the FCS (absolute or additive incidence).

Tandem and multi-rotor

  • LCT schedule on the control map: longitudinal cyclic trim against airspeed, with an altitude shift, a ground value and an actuator rate. See Control maps.
  • Rotor phase lock (Phase Lock Rotor Id and Offset Deg) keeps a second rotor's blades in step, for visuals, blade strikes and other players. See Rotor units.
  • Damage for extra rotors. Rotor Zones on the damage bridge (blade, mast and drive zones per rotor), sent over the network, and blade strike wear per rotor. A slot lookup (Zone Rotor Main Slot, Slot Name) handles rotor parts that name their zones the same. See Damage.
  • Rotor Id on signal bindings, so rotor rpm and angle signals can read a named rotor. Those angle signals are now smoothed per frame, so a graph-spun rotor doesn't jerk between rotor solves.
  • A clockwise rotor on the plain cyclic needs Cyclic Lat Sign −1. See Rotor units.
  • Wheels: Reverse Pedal Steer for steered wheels behind the CG.
  • See the updated Tandem recipe.

Rotor and airframe physics

  • Hinge Inertia Relief on articulated rotors, on by default. See Rotor config.
  • Fuselage moments: Body Yaw Moment Incidence Shaped and Phase Deg, and Body Moment Reference Incidence Deg, for fuselage moment data that's shaped with angle of attack or measured against a different axis. Off or 0 by default, so nothing changes unless you set them. See Airframe.

Visuals

  • Blade flap and lag signals (BLADE_FLAP_DEG, BLADE_LAG_DEG, with Blade Index) so your animation graph can move the blade bones, with Smooth Blade Flap on by default. Create If Missing signals are now registered before the graph binds its variables, so they work as graph variables. The Mi-8 is the worked example. See Blade flap on the model.
  • Extra Rotor Visuals: Spin Pivot is new, and a set Spin Axis now tips the model from that axis onto the physics shaft before spinning it, so it can't wobble. Draw Rotor Visual Axis and Hold Rotor Visuals help you line it up. Lean With Disc is now a fallback for models without blade bones. See Lining up an extra rotor visual.

Diagnostics

  • Blade Motion Diagnostic and Draw Blade Motion: every blade's flap and lag, stop hits, a runaway report and a pilot panel, plus [RFM-BLADE-STN] for stalled and reverse-flow stations.
  • [RFM-ROTOR-LOADS]: hub and blade loads split into the average and the per-rev parts, with a load ring drawn round each hub.
  • [RFM-YAW] and a yaw sketch on Draw Airframe.
  • [RFM-FLARE] adds up every rotor and lists each one on multi-rotor aircraft.
  • Dump Bones reaches child entities ([RFM-CHILD-BONES]).
  • See Reading the log and debug drawing.

2.0.5

Cleaned up for the modding release.

  • The modder guide moved to this site.
  • Debug logging is off by default on all the aircraft.

2.0.4

Environment overhaul

  • Wind changes with height now. It's slower near the ground and picks up higher up.
  • The ground affects the wind. Trees, towns and open fields all give different wind and turbulence.
  • Turbulence from wind over rough ground, and thermals off sun-heated ground.
  • Rough air downwind of hills and behind buildings and other obstacles.
  • Rain and wet ground come from the game's weather.
  • Fixed the wind direction being backwards. The wind now actually comes from the direction set in Game Master and shown on the map.

New keyboard flight

Keyboard, Keyboard + Mouse and Gamepad now fly through a new flight assist that works like vanilla:

  • W/A/S/D: hold to keep pitching or banking, no limit. Let go and it holds that angle. Tap for small corrections.
  • It doesn't turn by itself when banked anymore. Use Q/E to turn.
  • Shift/Ctrl: climb or descend. Let go and it holds that height.
  • Autohover (C): off until you press it. From any speed it slows down to a hover at the height you pressed it, holds over that spot even in wind, and turns the nose into strong wind. Press C again or use the cyclic to take back control.
  • On the ground the cyclic sits at the hover position by itself, so you lift straight up.
  • The assist looks after the rotor in hard manoeuvres. It keeps the Huey's rotor from unloading and backs off near the mast stop. Push hard enough and you can still bump the mast.

Multiplayer

  • Fixed getting back in after a shutdown. The rotor and engines used to jump back to whatever speed they were at when you got out.
  • Every engine on a twin or triple gets sent over the network now, so passengers and everyone else see each engine's own gauges.

For modders

Fixes

  • Starting up in strong wind doesn't cause small mast bump damage while the rotor's still stopped anymore.